Author: Johns, Richard
Biography:
JOHNS, Richard (1805-51: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born at Helston, Cornwall, on 5 Oct. 1805, and baptised on 13 Nov., the son of William Johns, a Major in the Cornish Militia, and his wife Charlotte Cosby, who had married in Great Amwell, Herts., in 1796. Nothing is known of his education. He entered the Royal Marines and served initially in the Woolwich Division (2nd Lt. 1825, 1st Lt. 1834, Captain 1843, Brevet-Major 1849) but transferred into Army Ordnance at the end of his career and was eventually invalided out. He may already have been in hospital by 30 Mar. 1851 as the Census records only his wife and four children at 49 Durnford Street, Stonehouse. He died at the Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse, Devon, on 6 Nov. 1851. He married Louisa Perceval Mason on 28 Aug. 1828 at St. Giles, Camberwell, London, and they went on to have six children. The work listed here contains poems written before he was twenty which were mostly ordinary and unambitious save the unfinished “Ruin,” a poem in two cantos (Poems, 58-82). He was better known for his poem Ascension (1836), named for the island where he appears to have been stationed for several years. He also wrote two collections of tales: Legend and Romance (1839) and The Schoolfellows (1841). He contributed about ten poems to the Annuals (1829-44). He began work on The Calendar of Victory (1855), tales of British heroes, valour, and conquest, recording an event for each day of the year. It was completed after his death by a fellow Royal Marine, Lt. P. H. Nicolas. (ancestry.co.uk 4 June 2022; findmypast.co.uk 4 June 2022; Bibliotheca Cornubiensis [1874], 1: 277; West Country Poets, 277; Western Courier 12 Nov. 1851; GM Dec. 1851, 671) AA